


Semantics

by Krekta



Category: BBC Sherlock, Sherlock (TV)
Genre: 221B Ficlet, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-06-24
Updated: 2012-06-24
Packaged: 2017-11-08 11:33:31
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 225
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/442777
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Krekta/pseuds/Krekta
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>John finally asks, but doesn't get the answer he was hoping for.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Semantics

**Author's Note:**

  * For [JessieBlackwood](https://archiveofourown.org/users/JessieBlackwood/gifts).



John had been working up to this for half the month. He’d considered it all very carefully, deducing that after they’d just finished a case—and before Sherlock had entered his depressive post-case stage—was the ideal moment to catch him. Deep breath, then, and out with it: “What am I to you, Sherlock?”

 

John held his breath, hoping to hear one particular answer. Unfortunately Sherlock, as was so often the case, didn’t deliver to expectations.

 

“My beard,” he said, without any of the hesitation that might have indicated he had to consider his response.

 

“What?”

 

“Look it up," was Sherlock’s terse rejoinder. He really did find John’s lack of salient vocabulary utterly frustrating sometimes.

 

“I know what a beard is, Sherlock. It’s a _woman_ who socialises with a gay man as cover for his being gay, to make him seem straight, in public.”

_  
_

_Ah, John is being a pedant about the semantics. I should have anticipated that._ “Oh, well my anti-beard then, if you insist.”

 

“I don’t understand?”

 

“You usually don’t.”

 

“Explain.”

 

“Well, some women do—so much—like the idea that they can ‘straighten’ a gay man. So I let them see you as my ‘partner’, and that usually gets their knickers off quicker than I can hail a taxi cab.”

 

“Do you know what _you_ are to _me_ , Sherlock? . . . A complete bastard.”

**Author's Note:**

> Inspired by the work of Atlin Merrick, Anarion and others working within the '221b' format - A Sherlock story consisting of 221 words, last word starting with 'b'.


End file.
